Arizona Is Making Its Case as the Pickleball Capital of the World

Arizona is mounting a serious bid to be recognized as the pickleball capital of the world — and it has the infrastructure to back up the claim.

Scottsdale-based advocate Missy Lagomarsino is leading an effort to have Arizona lawmakers designate pickleball as the state's official sport, a move that would formalize what the facilities already show: Arizona hosts some of the largest indoor pickleball venues in the country, a year-round outdoor playing season that no cold-weather state can match, and a population demographic that skews heavily toward the sport's core player base.

The Scottsdale and Phoenix metro areas have become a proving ground for professional-grade indoor pickleball courts, destination pickleball resorts, and high-profile tournaments that draw players from across North America. The combination of warm winters, a large retiree population, and significant investment from the indoor pickleball facility industry has turned Arizona into a de facto national hub for the sport.

Naming pickleball the state's official sport would carry more than symbolic weight. It would signal to facility developers, tournament organizers, and professional tour operators that Arizona is a committed partner — the kind of institutional endorsement that influences where businesses invest and where events are sited.

Whether Arizona legislators take up the designation formally is uncertain, but the underlying case is strong. The state has more outdoor and indoor pickleball courts per capita than almost any other, its residents play more hours of pickleball annually than most, and its sports community has embraced the game at every level from casual drop-in to professional competition.

[Read the full piece](https://www.yourvalley.net/stories/arizona-makes-its-case-to-be-pickleball-capital-of-world,688053)